The Box
by CaseyL
Summary: Just a couple of short one-shots with Rayna and Deacon after his proposal.
1. Chapter 1

**Really short one-shot on the morning after the proposal. I just wanted to play a little with the idea of Rayna finally letting her emotions come to the surface after how closed off she'd been all season.**

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Rayna woke up and realized she'd been sleeping on her couch. The early morning sun was just beginning to stream through the thin shears on her floor to ceiling windows. She rolled over and felt the kink in her neck as she strained to look at the clock. 5:45. Only six hours since Deacon had left. Six hours and 2 minutes since he'd pulled her towards him, steadily kissing her, and throwing everything in her carefully constructed world into a full on tumble. She touched her lips, they were still throbbing with the sensation of how his own had grabbed onto hers, expertly sucking on her lower lip the way that always made her whole body quiver from the inside.

She was glad that it would be at least two hours before Luke showed up, she couldn't deal with him right now. She was a mess of emotions that swung all over the place from blissful to terrified, and at this moment she wasn't sure which man was making her feel what. It had been so long since she had let her emotions control her like this. It had been a crazy year, and she'd worked hard to move past everything that happened, putting all the trauma into a box that she had carefully constructed so that it locked everything up, and kept it where it wouldn't touch her. She'd put the accident in there, she'd put all the fallout from Maddie's paternity in there, she put her father's death in there, and most of all she'd put Deacon Claybourne in there. She'd really tried to move on. She started dating Luke, and had begun to build a foundation on top of that box that she hoped was solid. And for months it had worked. Things with Luke were good, and she's stopped worrying about everything she'd locked away…that is until Deacon had come busting out, toppling everything she'd carefully constructed in one short conversation.

She looked down at her hand, cramped from holding his ring tight against her body all night. Her shirt still had a hint of his scent, and it was far more intoxicating than she would have liked to admit to herself. She felt the sudden desperate need to strip off all her clothes and run away. She headed upstairs and peeled her shirt and jeans off before placing both rings on the counter and jumping into the shower. She shampooed her hair and ferociously scrubbed her skin clean, but when she emerged from the shower, she still smelled him. He was in her hair, on her skin, in her blood, his presence was everywhere, and no matter what she did she couldn't get away.

Tears started to come quickly, running down her cheeks as she stood naked in her bathroom. Maybe that box hadn't been as tightly closed as she thought it was. If she was being honest with herself, she'd started to dream about Deacon again in the last few weeks. He'd never completely left her, no matter how hard she'd tried to push him out, but lately he was there more often than not; ever since that day at the cabin when they'd fought about Maddie, when she'd admitted to him that she'd wanted to be his wife, that she'd cried herself to sleep for a year aching for his touch. He'd seeped into her hazy thoughts as she drifted off to sleep, and kept her company all through the night. She'd been glad that Luke hadn't noticed her slipping back into her old patterns, but maybe he had, maybe that's what the very sudden public proposal had been about last night. Well if he wanted to bring things to a head he certainly had. He not only managed to put a ring on her finger, he'd gotten Deacon to do it too.

She picked up her brush and combed through her tangled hair, all the while staring at the two rings that were still sitting on her bathroom countertop. When she was done instead of putting the brush back in her drawer she walked into the closet and pulled out an overnight bag. She threw the brush in as well as a couple of pairs of jeans and a few shirts she pulled from a shelf with easy access. She picked up the rings and locked them in her jewelry box, then she headed back downstairs to the kitchen. She wrote a little note that she left on the pancake mix that she'd pulled out last night in preparation for Luke's arrival before Deacon had beat him to it. "I'm sorry. I just need some time to think. – R"

She carefully closed the door behind her and got into her SUV. She looked at the clock again. 6:45. Then she pulled out onto the open road.


	2. Chapter 2

**Becky asked me if I could do a second chapter from Deacon's perspective so I thought I'd oblige. Another short one-shot. Hope you enjoy!**

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Deacon opened the door to his truck and jumped in. He saw the time flash on the dash as he turned the key in the ignition. 11:48. As he drove, pure adrenaline pumped through his veins. He'd done it, exactly what he'd set out to do, and it had gone just as planned. She was speechless, frozen, but he could tell that her mind was moving at lightning speed. The moment he'd pressed his lips to hers and felt the quiver of her lip as it pressed back, he new he'd been right and there'd been no reason to worry. He didn't ever have to worry when it came to he and Rayna, not really.

Earlier, when he'd been driving over there in his truck, he fondled the ring in his pocket. He thought about how he should have never let her give it back to him, he should have fought for her, for them. Well, even if he hadn't done it then, he was going to do it now. He knew that all he had to do was take her in his arms and tell her not to marry Luke and she'd relent. She belonged to him. She always had, and she always would. No matter how much she tried to deny it, they both knew it. Just one word from him, one kiss, and she'd follow him to the end of the Earth. It was a power he'd always had, but one he'd used sparingly, and never lightly. He always preferred when she came to him, like that night on his front porch, more than a year ago now.

But things had gone too far with Luke, he'd had to put a stop to it. There was no more time for waiting, no going slow and figuring things out. He was a mess when she'd married Teddy, unable to stop her then, not strong enough to do what he should have done, but things were different now. He was different. He never felt more secure in his life. He was a damn good father to Maddie, and he knew he could be every bit of the husband that Rayna always dreamed he could be. If he'd been this confident all those years she'd been married to Teddy he could have used his power then, and things might have been different. He'd realized it that day in the elevator when he'd decided to stop thinking and start doing, but there was no reason to dwell on that now.

He parked the truck in front of his house and walked in his front door. Scarlett was fast asleep in her room, she hadn't even heard him leave, nearly an hour ago now. He went into the bathroom and splashed some water on his face before walking into his bedroom and tossing his boots under his chair in the corner. As he stood by his dresser pulling out a fresh undershirt he opened up the top of a small wooden box that had once held loose change, but had been home to a silver eternity band for the last year. It was empty now and he smiled to himself knowing that the ring was back where it belonged, with Rayna.

As he drifted off to sleep he could still smell her hair, taste her lips. It was the most alive he'd felt in a year, and he never wanted it to end. He knew he just had to be patient. Rayna would do what she always does, she'd try to rationalize, deny what she felt, even try to runaway, but in the end she'd fall back on her impulsive nature as a musician and an artist. Her feelings would get the best of her, and she'd show up on his doorstep, or text him to meet her in their spot, or write him a song that she'd sing to him in public that only they knew was a testament to their long suffering, but enduring love. He reached out and ran his hand over the spot where she had once slept. A spot that had been occupied by others, but had never belonged to anyone but her. He could almost feel her there now, hear the lilt of her breath as she wrapped herself in all the covers. It was just a matter of time before she was back there again and he'd be keeping her warm.


End file.
